The central government on Wednesday said that a new catering policy has been notified to provide quality food to rail passengers by unbundling various services on trains.

“A new catering policy has been notified on February 27, 2017 with the objective to provide quality food to rail passengers by unbundling of catering services on trains,” Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

“Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has been mandated to carry out the unbundling by creating a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution,” the minister said.

The minister pointed out that IRCTC will engage the hospitality industry to upgrade quality of catering services in trains.

“Further, in order to provide better and improved services to passengers, Indian Railways has decided to hand over the retiring rooms, dormitories and their management to IRCTC,” Gohain said.

Besides, the railways has called for “Expression of Interest” (EOI) for empanelment of reputed organisations by the IRCTC to undertake the work to renovate, operate and transfer of retiring room in a phased manner, the minister said.

Gohain elaborated that railways has proposed to outsource the housekeeping of major stations and trains by engaging professional agencies so that integrated cleaning can be taken up as a specialised activity.